Exercise/Workout Advice?

[peace-love-couture]

My workout:

Monday:

-HIIT(warm-up,intervals,cool-down,20 minutes total)

-Couch5K App(30 minutes, running/walking intervals)

Tuesday:

-I have no clue what to do for cardio :O

-Strength training

Wednesday:

-HIIT(warm-up,intervals,cool-down,20 minutes total)

-Couch5K App(30 minutes, running/walking intervals)

Thursday:

-I have no clue what to do for cardio :O

-Strength training

Friday:

-HIIT(warm-up,intervals,cool-down,20 minutes total)

-Couch5K App(30 minutes, running/walking intervals)

My strength training involves jumping jacks, push-ups, crunches,squats, lunges, wall-sits, planks and hip lifts, basically kiddy type stuff :P

I eat around 1,000-1,200 calories a day:)

===============>Few questions<==================

1)What is the best time of day to go running outside?(I live in Tx)

2)What cardio should I do for Tuesday & Thursday?

My choices are:

-Billy Blanks Tae-Bo dvd video

-Nike Training Club App video

-Find a random video on youtube:o

My goals:

-Be healthier. My dad is diabetic and has high cholesterol, high blood pressure, arthritis, my mother has heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, arthritis and I would like to avoid such problems now and later in life.

-Be in shape. I rather not be the chick who is huffing and puffing while walking up the stairs :O It's tacky, especially for skinny people

-Lose muscle. My legs/thighs are muscular and unfortunately it's in my family, my mom has muscular legs and so do my sisters and I. I'd like to have thin legs which do not touch and have a space in between them:) So thin legs:) So lose muscle:)

[WeaponZero]

Overall I would say your plan doesn't seem all that efficient. Doing a program such as Couch to 5k AND HIIT together seems counterintuitive because you're not allowing yourself the rest you need. Also, your caloric intake doesn't seem sufficient for your activity level. A girl who's doing an intensive workout program like that and is your size should be eating a lot more.

As far as losing muscle goes, the only way to LOSE muscle mass is to do heavy resistance training with less than 48 hours rest for that muscle group. However it is not safe as it risks injury.

A simpler way to optimize your workout program would be to do what I'm doing: full body strength training 3 days a week, and besure it's ACTUALLY full body. A suspension trainer such as the TRX or Jungle Gym XT is good for that. It allows you to perform Tabata training (basically the next evolution of the HIIT concept) while doing a full body resistance workout. Follow up each Tabata workout with cardio for anywhere from 5-15 minutes. That's really all you need.

[Anonymous]

you won't lose muscle if you are going to be staying active

and body proportions (aka leg size, thickness etc.) run in the genetics so you may not be able to get the legs that you want

also strength training is not "strength" training unless you use weights

[peace-love-couture]

I do use weights? It's not the focus of my workout and I don't want the muscle to turn to flab, just to burn the hell down

[Opinion Owner]

yes but you have to understand, muscle doesn't just burn the hell down

as long as you are using those muscles and moving your legs, they won't be going anywhere, at least not for another couple years.. that's just a fact of life sorry

[peace-love-couture]

I was told that excess cardio causes muscle loss, hence why people are suppose to have "recovery" days

[Opinion Owner]

yes but it doesn't do it enough to cause a lapse in your genetics... if it's in your genetic make up then there's really no way around it other than surgery

[peace-love-couture]

whatever, don't care much for your useless answer

[Opinion Owner]

how is this useless? any opinion that doesn't agree with you is useless ?

[peace-love-couture]

No, because you're stating bullsh*t when people have stated otherwise

[Opinion Owner]

they talked about losing WEIGHT, not losing muscle

[peace-love-couture]

Not, they've talked about losing muscle. excess cardio breaks down muscle, which is what most people try to avoid, but that is what I want. And again, no where in here did you ever answer my question. You simply gave your irrelevant two cents. If you don't like my question as stated in your troll post below, get the f*** off. As I told you, I will kindly block your ass

[OneLove404]

Pretty good plain IMO.

I would say I usually go for a jog in the morning.

At 6:30 am ( That way I have time to get ready for school.)

And wow I didn't know you're dad was diabetic. Those are some really good goals (:

As I mentioned to you My legs are muscular from my stupid sports.

And Omg I love Nike training club app.

And you should really check out the app daily abs Its really really good I got a 4 pack of it ;)

They also have daily cardio that's a pretty nice app to (:

I think you should ether jump rope , do you access to a swimming pool cause that's easy excersice join you're YMCA? Ha ha

And you make me laugh about the huffing and puffing part.

Hope this helps (:

[Hyped_up_on_coffee]

that is a very complicated plan the best running time is either early or in the afternoon and jumprope is good cardio if not just do the Jillian michael's quick trouble zones video on the exersize channel and do cardio and weights at the same time just like me.

[Anonymous]

If you are trying to lose weight you should aim for 60 2 90 minutes of exercise a day and I say tae bo